1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to wireless communications and specifically to cellular telephone systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cellular telephone systems are well known. Mobile subscribers connect via radio transmissions to a base station transceiver, base station transceivers in turn communicate via either land lines or microwave communication lines to base station controllers. Base station controllers in turn communicate through mobile switching centers to a mobile switching office which then connect to the public switched telephone network.
When mobile subscribers travel from one base station coverage area to another base station coverage area, the system must keep track of the mobile subscriber's location. This process becomes critical when a call is in process and it is necessary to handoff the processing of the call between base stations. It is imperative that the call continue smoothly and transparently without being dropped by the network.
Much overhead call processing takes place within the network to insure that calls are not dropped. The current architecture is insufficient to insure that with the continued rise in cellular traffic that calls will be efficiently handled.
There is accordingly a need for a new method and apparatus for handling calls within a cellular network in order to solve or ameliorate the problem of increased traffic in cellular systems.